The present invention relates to a system and method for providing funding to organizations such as non-profit organizations, for-profit corporations, and governmental bodies that are seeking to provide alternative funding from their regular sources such as donations, grants, profits or taxes.
Organizations raise money in various ways. For-profit and some not-for-profit corporations sell goods and services to generate cash flow to fund their operations. Governments exercise their franchise to tax citizens and businesses to generate revenues. Non-profit organizations such as charities depend on volunteers, donations and grants to carry out their missions. Particularly for charities, but for other organizations as well, there is often a need for an alternative source of revenue, or for a regular, more-dependable source of revenue.
Corporations may also need additional revenue to fund retirement and/or health benefit obligations. For example, for-profit corporations have expenses, such as pension expenses, that they may be unable or unwilling to fund with retained earnings. This is particularly so when their competition drives down the price that can be charged for goods and services while their own pension expenses drive up costs. Under these circumstances, profits from current operations may be needed for upgrading capital equipment, sales and marketing, or expanding operations and thus be unavailable for other obligations. As another example, governments may have to raise money to cover liabilities but be reluctant or unable to raise taxes. Still another example, charities may find that the cost to generate donations significantly limits the net amount actually raised, and, accordingly, may be looking for a more efficient way to raise revenue.
One way for non-profit and charitable organizations in particular to generate revenues is by persuading a donor to name the organization as a beneficiary of a life insurance policy on the donor's life. When the donor dies, the proceeds of the policy are paid to the organization. In this relationship, the owner of the policy is insuring his or her own life but naming the organization as a beneficiary. The organization must of course await the death of the insured before it receives any proceeds.
Life insurance may be used by for-profit organizations as well. However, in this case, the owner of the policy is not the same one whose life is being insured. Rather, the owner of the policy is the organization and the insured is likely to be a key employee and the organization is seeking to protect its interest in the employee's value to the organization. For an organization to initiate a life insurance policy on an individual, it must have an insurable interest in the life of the insured individual. The cost of the policy is borne by the organization, and can be a significant additional expense for the organization, particularly if there are numerous key employees.
The concept of an insurable interest is essentially a legal one, one that characterizes the nature of the relationship between two individuals or an individual and an organization and is defined by statute and case law. The person or entity initiating a policy must have an interest in the life of the insured individual in order to be permitted at law to obtain insurance on the value of that individual's life for financial protection in the event of the insured's death. The concept of an insurable interest depends on the laws of the applicable jurisdiction. For present purposes, an insurable interest will simply be defined as a legal relationship between an organization and an individual the existence of which relationship allows the organization to purchase a life insurance policy on the individual's life. When no insurable interest exists, the present system and method may be prohibited by law.
Recently, there have been a number of attempts to provide funding for an organization by purchasing a group of insurance policies, each one insuring the life of a different individual in whom the organization has an insurable interest, and to fund the cost of the insurance, in whole or in part, with a combination of cash value and death benefits. In some cases, the premiums are financed. However, a review of these programs suggests that they may be risky to the organization and are not as reliable, effective or flexible as the present invention, let alone structured to meet a particular organization's cash flow needs. Moreover, with so-called investor-owned life insurance (IOU), stranger-originated (STOLI) or stranger-initiated life insurance, policies are created for the purpose of resale. The ownership of the policies and the rights associated with ownership of the policies are generally transferred by the organization that has the insurable interest to third parties, and are now disfavored. They typically violate the spirit and intent of insurable interest laws in order to reallocate proceeds or excess benefits not required to satisfy debt, to outside third-parties rather than to the organization that initially had insurable interest.
Thus an organization appears to have only three practical options when it comes to finding a source of revenue from life insurance policies. It can purchase life insurance on individuals provided that it has an insurable interest on those individuals; it can persuade an owner of a life insurance policy to designate it as a beneficiary; or it can persuade its donors or members to donate current life insurance policies they no longer need. The first option may be cost prohibitive; the second requires the organization to wait for its donor to die, in spite of the fact that its needs for cash may be more immediate and on-going, and the third may also be cost prohibitive, since it usually requires the organization to take over paying the annual premiums. Thus, there remains a need for finding alternative ways of financially protecting and funding organizations.